I’ve carried Swiss Army knives for years – I have two in my purse right now. My daughter has been fascinated by those little knives, especially the one with the translucent green covers on my keychain. She’s been asking for her own knife since she could talk, but she had to wait until her middle school “graduation” to get one. If you have a toddler that’s fascinated with your pocket knife, you can give her one of her own that you know is safe. ThinkGeek has the Kids Swiss Army Knife. This is an official Victorinox toy with 6 plastic tools. There’s a spoon and fork (big enough to eat with), a saw blade and knife blade, a screwdriver/can opener that can pry apart plastic building blocks, a plastic magnifying glass, and there’s a small carabiner. The Kids Swiss Army Knife is $7.99. For ages 3-7.
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very bad idea
Am I the only parent here that almost had a heart attack when I saw a little girl sticking a knife in her mouth…
Seriously, teaching kids to stick pocket knives in their mouth?
Would you rather have them stick a pocket knife in YOUR mouth?
Seriously, though — I agree. Not wise. Kind of like filling empty vodka bottles with water for the kids…
Hmmm… I like Swiss Army knives and have carried one for years. However, buying one of these for the grand kid with the Quaker, peace activist father would get my grandparent privileges revoked. I agree “very bad idea.”
My goodness! That picture looks so WRONG!
As cool at it might be…that’s just so wrong!
Safe against cuts or not, That is not safe practice. Kid now thinks it’s ok to put this in it’s mouth. Kid now find parents REAL knife. Results?
Like making a lifelike gun that shoots icecream out the barrel. What does the kid do with a real one?
Geez, I’m the most over-protective mother you’ll see, and I don’t have a problem with it. And Andrew Baker, they do make lots of toy guns for kids – some of them lifelike. This is really no different than the toy guns, toy bows and arrows, toy Bowie knives, toy hand cuffs, etc. you’ll find in every toy store.
Janet:
But 3 years old? 5 — maybe. 7, Yes, but THREE? I think THAT is the issue.
Think about it — would you serve your 3 year old water from a cleaned Clorox bottle? An adult (or even an older child) might find it amusing… but a 3 year old might find a REAL Clorox bottle and take a few sips…
Jhon, I never would have given my child water from a Clorox bottle, or a vodka bottle, or anything else mentioned. But then again, I never let my child chew on my car keys (a source of lead) either, which I see every time I leave the house. I didn’t let her play outside near the busy street unattended, I never left her unattended in the car while I ran in the store. Heck, I quit my job and stayed home with her after she came home from daycare with an unexplained bruise on her arm.
I just don’t see how this toy is so different from any other toy weapon.
Have any of you ever used a swiss army knife? Show me a 3 year old that can get one of those things open and I’ll eat crow.
And if your kid happens to get her hands on your open swiss army knife, Victorinox aren’t the ones doping something wrong
My three-year-old can open my Swiss Army Knife, which is why I was browsing the web for blameless or toy versions (hence landing here).
My Swiss Army Knife is always either with me or put somewhere out of reach, so all access is closely supervised (and he generally only ever wants to play with the magnifying glass, anyway) but still I’m not comfortable with a three-year-old+knife situation so I’m trying to find other ways to satisfy his fascination with gadgets.
I have to say I was concerned by the image of the child putting the Swiss Army Knife toy (albeit the ‘fork’ part) into her mouth. I agree with mist others, here, that it may encourage children to put real Swiss Army Knives or multitools into their mouths.
Maybe I will just wait until my kid is a few years older before getting a knife (toy or otherwise) for him, as there doesn’t seem to be any really good, safe version out there and I’m sure with a little imagination I can think of a raft of alternative gadget ideas.
Daz:
I own a mutli-tool and swiss army knife.
I would give neither of them to my 3yo to play with, chew or even attempt to open. And if my 3yo happened to pick one of them up, I would take it away.
Nor would I give a look-alike. I think that would send mixed messages.
Janet:
If this thread (and me) appear to be attacking your parenting skills, I don’t think that’s intended — particularly not from me. I take issue with the minimum age for something like this. It makes me feel very uncomfortable giving something like this to a 3yo.
I wouldn’t give a 3yo a toy gun, either — not that I consider a swiss army knife the same type of “weapon” anyway.
But why?
Even if you can look past the safety issue as pointed out by numerous readers and go “blah, blah, blah…it’s a free country…let them call child protective services on me…from my cold dead hands…,” consider the cruelty of subjecting your child to a horrible utensil: a lump for a handle that barely fit an adult hand let alone a child hand; the imbalance of that lump in said hand as its main purpose is not the pleasure of the meal but to conceal the blade that’s crudely shape into something that the manufacturer think they can call a spoon.
Life is too short to eat with a cheap spoon, let alone a horrible one.
Meister Vu:
Heh… I never got past the “I wouldn’t use this because of ‘Y'” to even consider how PRACTICAL it is… Good point.
To those worrying about a little girl putting a knife (even a plastic one) in her mouth, she’s not she’s using the fork to eat.
She’s using the fork to eat with not the knife.Open your eye’s people it’s plastic!Has anyone ever gone camping?Idiots!!
Frank/Gary:
So give your real swiss army knife to your local 3 year old.
I’ll pass. But I thank you for the label of “Idiot”, Frank. It’s nice to know how you feel about those with differing opinions!
@frank and Gary
Its rude to call people names because you disagree…it would be like me calling you a moron who doesn’t know anything about infants and toddlers…I wouldn’t do that because it would be rude to call you a moron.
Here’s the deal, I’ll use small words ( not calling you a moron, you know):
Infants and toddlers stick everything in their mouths and noses…as well as other places.
This is why so many of them go to the ER every year.
Giving one a toy knife to stick in their mouth invites them to do the same when they find daddies real knife.
This happens with guns as well…how often do you here of kids getting hurt or killed when they find a real gun instead of a toy.
My daughter had one of these knives, and I told her to only use pretend food with it…because it is a pretend knife.
Over protective? Maybe…but who enjoys going to the ER?
everyone here who is saying its wrong..ITS NOT!!!!!! its a great idea. i wish i got my first knife at that age. i got my first at 9 and i still carry it with me today for protection. who knows maybe if the worst happened there could be a chance your child could get kidnapped (hopefully not!) wouldn’t you feel safer if they had a knife? buy this and teach them to stab!! it WILL help
everyone here is just an over-reactive parent except me :L
Chill out overprotective parents. The kid is using the fork blade on the knife. Do you not use sharp metal forks at home? Teach them that knives deserve respect and watch your kids instead of trolling the internet for comment sections and noone gets hurt. IT’S PLASTIC.
Avid outdoorsman and I just bought one for my 4 year old.
so did anybody realize she is using the fork attachment? i had utensil “swiss army knife” type thing for scouting. hmm. it’s kind of what it’s for…i actually, gasp!…stuck the fork attachment in my mouth MANY times. woa…scary.
Give me a break people, she has the fork in her mouth!
Wow, it’s a fork not a knife. This is where school shootings start. Over protective parents making rejects out of their kids.
I have searched for a long time to find out four grandsons one of these plastic knives.. I was shocked to see so many negative comments..It was really sad that many would seem so defensive about the plastic fork and yet.. let so many hurtful words fly out of their mouth?? My sons had these and are grown healthy daddies now..Did anyone stop to think about the motor skills it teaches when learning to open this innocent plastic knife//
? I was sad to see so many adults speak hurtful to each other over a plastic knife.. Have we really gotten to such a place in our hearts that we would hurt a real person over a toy?? I am happy I found the knife ..The only question is.. Thw logo?? Do not know what it means and won’t buy until I do.. Please mommies and daddies.. be kind to each other..
This is what is wrong with this country today! Too many parents trying to protect and “baby” their children so that when they grow up they can’t do anything for themselves. They always worry about getting hurt. Let kids be kids and do what kids do, they learn from their action and from their parents actions, and if the child know that mommy and daddy baby them, they will never do anything for themselves, creating the messed up society we have now!
You know, now that I am a parent (I wasn’t when this came out). I’m looking at things differently. I see this as a learning tool, vs. a bad idea. I am firmly in the park of teaching my child to make right decisions, and learn from his mistakes. I do not want him to be permanently harmed, but bumps, bruises, scratches, cuts, ,etc are part of growing up. I’ve seen the results of friends and family who have sheltered and bubbled their child. I do not like it, I do not want my child to be like that. Kids break bones, get burns and bleed. If they are going to do all this, lets have it done when their bodies will heal and repair themselves quickly. And hopefully they will learn from it. My parents let me make decisions, sometimes I made bad one’s I paid for them, but they were MY decisions, I learned from them and became a better person for it.
It’s kinda funny arguing the other side of the coin with myself.
I read the first couple of posts on this thread…. seriously … the picture is of a three year old with a plastic fork in her mouth… For those that don’t like knifes, in this case a fake plastic replica of the classic Swiss Army knife, then don’t buy it.
But just for the sake of argument, I suspect those that went off the “deep end” here, “jhon”, need to get a life. Good intentions or not , with freedom comes responsibility. If one did not active parent that monitors kids and instill good moral values, then its easy to see where Jhons comments come from.
Perhaps he is not ready for a plastic fork yet.
I am a Boy Scout and I didn’t get a pocketknife until I was 8! I don’t carry mine everywhere but when I go camping I never forget my knife! One question; is the “knife blade” actually sharp because in the picture the little girl is sticking the knife blade in her mouth. That scares me!
@Pcanywii The post states that the knife parts are all made of plastic and therefore are not sharp. And she has a fork in her mouth, not a knife blade.
HEHE Julie I think this is that one article on your site that will continue to pop up for YEARS! I can see it now. The year is 2040 I’ll be living in my robot body and get a message. “THERE IS A NEW COMMENT ON The Gadgeteer”
hehe
@Andrew and the comment will be “OMIGOD, that kid has a knife in his mouth!”
It is just a toy. If you think it is improper for your child simply do not buy, do not try to dictate to others what they should do or worse yet, chastise others for their opinions. As for my self I am buying them for the little ones. It seems these days every one thinks they have a right to tell others how to live their lives.